The renowned Mogao Grottoes in northwest China, home to over 1,000 Buddha figures, has become the site of the country 's successful project to protect cultural relics from wind-blown sand drifts and the encroaching desert.

Compared with the 1980s, the amount of sand accumulated in the Grottoes region has dropped over 90 percent nowadays, Wang Wanfu, an expert with the Dunhuang Academy told Xinhua here at the Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites which is scheduled to close Saturday.

In the 1980s, about 3,000 to 4000 cubic meters of accumulated sand needed to be cleaned out of the Grottoes region annually, but the current amount is only 100 cubic meters of sand per year, he said.

The Mogao Grottoes, listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Heritage in 1980s,is located 25 kilometers away from the city of Dunhuang, and surrounded by the Gobi Desert.

According to years of observation, experts have found that wind and sand encroachment is an important factor causing the pealing off of the priceless wall paintings, damages to Buddha statues and collapse of caves.

"All the damage is related to wind drift sand to some extent," Wang said.

Since the 1940s, various measures to stop wind-drift sand have been taken in the Mogao Grottoes. So far three barriers against wind-drift sand have been built, including a 20-hectare grass patch to fix sand, two 2-kilometer forest belts and a nylon fence.

"In recent years, we have cooperated with protection and research institutes from the United States, Japan and Australia to explore an effective way to protect the Mogao Grottoes from sand damage," said Li Zuixiong, deputy director of Dunhuang Academy.

"We still need to work on a multilevel system composed of engineering, biological and chemical measures to further fight against the sand, "Li said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2004)